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On December 21st, I watched the movies How to Train Your Dragon and Twilight: Eclipse. That is when I thought up a novel idea: Let's take two book and film franchises (Harry Potter and Twilight) plus a stand-alone film, all radically different, and compare some values that I've seen within them.

To begin with, I must preface this by saying that I am no professional literary or cinematic critic, nor do I have a great deal of depth or research behind my understandings of each of these works. I have read all seven Harry Potter books, and I've seen all the movies but the most recent. Concerning the Twilight series, however, my only prior experience was really writing this post - which aside from making general criticisms of the books based on non-content-related criteria was largely a denunciation of Ketchikan's woeful lack of recognition as supreme rainfall capital of the United States. But raininess I shall set aside; I ranted quite enough on that in that previous post.

I wrote the following on February 17, 2010 - almost ten months ago - entitling the blogpost draft "Contentedness":It's always disappointing to have a long break in posting, but I believe this last silence has been unprecedented. Tomorrow, it will have been a month since I've written here last. I really need a turn around, or the Publisher is simply going to fade away into oblivion.The truth, though, is that I have been far too content to simply leave my blog be and carry on in my daily habits. In speaking at my high school graduation, I said the following:Graduation [...] is not an accomplishment on which to fixate. Yes, we achieved much in order to make it here. We’ve crossed a threshold, and we’ve crossed out at least a page of tasks in that big book of a to-do list for our lives – but should we be satisfied? No.Graduates: I want you to dream – right now. I want you to aspire. At this very moment, I want you to feel incomplete. I want you to be discontent. As grand…

My distraction for the day has been the amazing innovation of Prezi. I've actually been a little disappointed this year not to have given any PowerPoints, but after discovering Prezi, I'm not sure I ever want to make a PowerPoint again.

Basically, the modern slide show presentation, made using PowerPoint or other programs, is limited because it's based on the same old idea of the slide projector - a linear progression of slides. Prezi is entirely different: The presentation consists of a single canvas containing all your topics, points, data, pictures, video - everything you want to present. Then, by determining the size of each of these objects, putting frames around them and creating a path between everything you want to show, your presentation becomes a zooming, flying, dynamic experience with unprecedented potential.

One secret hobby of mine is imagining myself being a teacher. The idea really remains one of my top occupational fantasies, if you will, and usually I thi…

Many, if not most, covert operations deserve to be disclosed by a free press. They are often covert not only because they are illegal but because they are wildly ill-conceived and reckless. "Sensitive" and "covert" are often synonyms for "half-assed," "idiotic," and "dangerous to national security," as well as "criminal."
- Daniel Ellsberg, the real-life hero who released the Pentagon Papers

It seems a storied tradition has developed on this blog of posting about my different class schedules at Georgetown. Here is the mention of my first preregistration, before I even became a freshman, (a very interesting post to look back on), here's the one for Spring 2010, and then there were several relating to my classes for this semester (this post ultimately being the accurate one).

So, with two semesters of college well behind me and another one soon to be on its way to join them, I now have for you my classes for Spring 2011. I am fairly certain there will be no changes to this schedule; unlike when I got my classes for this semester, this time I got a full courseload right from the beginning. Here it is! West African HistoryAdv. French Grammar and WritingChina’s Evolving Role in AfricaInternational TradePhilosophy of Education
I can even start giving these classes acronyms! Acronym-giving is a must in the organized world - at least my organized world. Here also are my predic…

At the beginning of this semester, I became a little prejudiced against my Comparative Political Systems professor because of his intellectual love affair with Max Weber and after talking to him a little about the infamous Samuel Huntington's ridiculous "Clash of Civilizations" idea - in both cases because he seemed very comfortable with culturist ideas that I find anathema.

Nevertheless, since then I have grown to like my professor more, due to the enjoyableness of his course, lectures, and common references to Canada. All the same, culturist hypotheses seem to have persisted in a few of those lectures. (By the word culturist, I am describing theories that claim to show how general cultural monoliths, such as "Protestantism," "Islam," Catholicism," or "Confucianism" will determine societies' characteristics.)

I kind of went through a similar process in my opinions of my TA for this course: By the middle of the semester I was more …

Uh oh. It looks like my benign support of Wikileaks on this blog may cancel me out of any future working for the U.S. government. (See here.) Of course, this is if my talk about the Alaska Independence Party didn't already disqualify me.

Never fear! Being a blogger definitely has more lucrative prospects, so I'm not going to let myself be shut up about what I believe in. Governments need to be accountable to those who supposedly determine them - i.e. the democratic societies they serve. Especially in war, information on corruption and abuse must be made public so that justice can be served and changes in policy initiated.

The website wikileaks.org is no longer accessible (at least, not easily, at least not in the USA and many other places). This is a website that heroically leaked secret documents, including many related to war crimes, abuses and corruption in US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, is it surprising that the authorities have shut the website down? I guess not - but maybe I thought the government would have taken out the threat to its secrecy a little more subtly.

Let's key an eye out for developments. I, for one, think this is wrong.

I don't remember taking many notes per se in high school, but all the same, most everything done in class was done on paper. I may have taken a computer to Kayhi only once or twice, using it very very briefly, and I had my laptop for about the last year and half I was there.

To great extent, I didn't think about ever bringing my computer to high school because pretty much no one else did - and I would never want to stick out like that, as if I was showing my possession off. But also, I thought it would be a hassle, probably more trouble than it was worth.

Thus, when I came to college and asked myself whether I should take lecture notes on paper or on my computer, I decided, for a variety of reasons, to be completely technology-free whenever I went to class (aside of course from the occasional use of my phone).

As it is, I've got a pretty good system going: For every class I have a three-ring binder, with all my papers hole-punched and placed in the binder chronologically. I…

After searching "Benedict Fitzpatrick" on Google, I saw the phrase "Peter studied the influence of the ancient Irish monks, especially through Benedict Fitzpatrick's Ireland and the Foundations of Europe."

Given that this is exactly what I am doing, right at this moment, I was astounded. Was some website stalking me, posting up-to-the-second data on my activities? (I sure hoped not.)

Fortunately, this is but a great coincidence, and this Peter is not me.

Perhaps when I finish my study of these Irish monks, I will post my final product - hopefully a ten page research paper, turned in tomorrow - here on the blog. Back to work for me!

I recently found a great map that has the 2000 census results for the plurality ancestry of each county/borough/parish of the country. It has a whole ton of gems: layers of African Americans, Italians and Irish fanning out from New York, the non-conformity of Hawai'i, the distribution of those responding "American" and many many more.

I, however, would like to look at Alaska again. Let's look first at my map that I made for this post two weeks ago. I am obviously not a great graphic artist, and this map has some big disadvantages, particularly in that it doesn't differentiate between electoral districts when they were won by the same candidate. Nevertheless, it does show regional electoral patterns, and it seems to me to be quite interesting to look at how this matches the 2000 Census data.
Here it is: The three colors represent, according to the Census, the ancestries of "Aleut/Eskimo," "American Indian," and "German." (If you don…

I don't mean it will change in the next two milliseconds because of some edit, either. I have a feeling that it will change significantly, sometime in the next... two years, maximum.

Now, if a completely random sample of all the people who use the internet visited this blog, a very good portion of you will have used Wikipedia. Since the sample isn't random, though, and the selection of those visiting the Publisher must surely be biased towards English speakers as well as - probably - people given to looking up random things, I would say that an even greater percentage of you have used Wikipedia. With this in mind, I will guess that you probably saw within the last few weeks the message banners that went across every Wikipedia page, asking for money, bearing assorted pictures of Jimmy Wales, with whose face we are now all uncomfortably familiar.

Now, it may very well be that Wikipedia does this fundraising every year, and I have seen these …

Do you know what I just realized? I have had many different formatting a display styles for this blog over its lifetime, right? and many times I have referred to the changing of those styles in posts - but now that that was ages ago, I have no way of going back and seeing what my blog looked like before.

What I've realized, over two and half years after this blog was created, is that I should have taken screenshots. Then we'd all be able to see the evolution of the Publisher's aesthetics. But, my thought process on this problem having been so slow, all that is lost to us. But to at least save what I can of history, I have taken a screenshot of the current style:

If you see this post right now, this picture may seem redundant. But believe me, in a few years, when the Publisher will likely look completely different, it will be greatly appreciated - at least by me.

Yes, I realize that it is only a short time after my last post. I don't believe, however, that simply editing the last with an addendum would do my further research justice.

Looking just at the Senate race vote results, (really the only interesting thing to come out of this election), I created an elementary little map, coloring in each electoral district based on whether there were more votes written in, for McAdams, or for Miller. Just that little bit of extra detail can drastically change one's view on the election.

Now, I was already well aware that there are geopolitical divisions in Alaska. Sarah Palin basically heralded the rise of the Mat-Su, or the greater south-central area outside of Anchorage. Population in that area has been growing rapidly, and with no better descriptors, I think it best to just leave my characterization of that population's general political leanings as being represented by Sarah. Thus, it was no surprise when I saw Joe Miller "winning&…

I am honestly am only writing about this now because I kind of promised to - and I suppose because I am procrastinating when I have much to write for my classes. Here was my ballot, and computer in the back, sitting on my desk:

I ran pretty hard to get my vote in, too, as I had to go to the post office at the last minute on election day, and I had a short space to run several blocks there and back before my class. What's more, I have to say that 37-cent postage is a modern day poll tax! (The gas people use to drive to the polls to vote physically must cost much more, but hey, I still think postage for absentee ballots should be prepaid.)

Long story short, none of the people I voted for were elected. I did vote a party line, but only after putting a lot of thought into the people I preferred in each race. Murkowski's likely victory in the Senate race, with there being significantly more write-in ballots than votes for either Miller or McAdams, is in some ways quite a surprise, …

I am an unshakeable customer of Google. This blog is a part of Blogger, a Google-owned service; I am currently using the browser Google Chrome to write this post; of course, nearly every time I search something on the internet (assuredly hundreds of times a day). Nonetheless, Google lies. Everyone may have their own idea of some way Google deceives us, but for me, Google's most obvious spit in the face of truth can be seen in their service Google Maps. All you have to do is zoom out.

This is heinous - simply heinous. If you haven't read my writings on the Mercator projection before, just take my word - the world seen in the image above is nothing like our own. It is a sick and twisted fun-house-mirrored world, which, if it existed, would lengthen Siberians' yardsticks while shortening those of Kenyans, and the steps of Brazilians would be made to go farther than those of Finns. Now, wouldn't I, rabid Alaska-nationalist that I am, appreciate that the size of my homeland…

This last week has been pretty productive for me: I finished my midterms and am currently moving forward forcefully on class readings so that I can use what time is left to begin some real work on my big research papers that I have for several classes. I am, in other words, relaxed and confident, but I am intent on doing as much as I can while I have this feeling so that nearer the end of this month I am not hit by my deadlines with what one would hope is not a nearly overwhelming pressure of stress and despair. :) Though they may at times be scorned, emoticons have power. The smiley communicates that the negative ending of the last paragraph is to some extent laughable, and I am, all the same, quite happy - or at least, if the smiley didn't communicate that, I have now. And why am I happy? November 1 is usually thought of as a day after an "eve" - All Hallows' Eve. This November 1, however, is an eve for two pretty important things: nationally, it's the eve of ele…

My classes this semester have been surprisingly homogenous in structure, and one of the most obvious ways in which this is apparent is the fact that I have had, or will have, a single mid-term exam in every class. As of right now, I have taken three and have two to go.

I have done many more things this semester to study for tests that I didn't do before. For one, I now take notes on almost all of my readings, something that I only really began to do last spring, and that only because of History of Africa's high essay standards. I also have talked more about what I've learned: Before taking my one-essay-question-exam for Comparative Political Systems, I practically gave a speech to myself talking about what I was going to write in the essay. And I know this sounds funny - which it kind of is - but I also talked to my girlfriend several nights about various topics, from the Ottoman Empire to the viking invasion of Ireland, in order to put her to sleep.

A few weeks ago I was walking in the Georgetown neighborhood in the evening, some way west of the University near the Georgetown Reservoir. At one point I turned to walk up a hill that was pretty steep by DC standards - and then I saw a sign, and I laughed out loud as soon as I saw it.

Just recently, I showed my Uncle Mike this picture, telling him "If the city thought those signs were necessary in Ketchikan, we'd have thousands of them!" This was his reply:

Peter,The hill blocks the view (so don't bother driving up here). Or upcoming is the Hill Blocks viewpoint, famous for its beauty. Or the hill blocks are actually viewing something, which most hill blocks don't do. What they are viewing apparently doesn't matter.MZ

I feel I haven't written much about Georgetown over the two and a half semesters I've been here. The school really is, in many ways, a home for me now, and though neither my family or the love of my life can be with me here longer than a few visits, I have to admit that this is where the majority of my life for the next three years will be spent.

With that being said, I have definitely learned how to enjoy life in DC, and especially here on campus. There is, after all, a Georgetown bubble, and I would probably admit to not exploring outside of it as much as I should. It's true though that I'm here first and foremost to learn, get a degree or two, and expand (or warp) my mind; it's what I'm paying for, after all. So in my daily travels walking about campus, whether it's to go to class, to do errands, or just to exercise while chatting on the phone with my girlfriend, I often take the time to look around and take joy in the beauty around me.

This blog has just gone through a thorough aesthetic revamp today. Perhaps I felt I had the time to spend because I turned in my first paper of the school year yesterday and finished my first midterm of the school year today. (I don't, actually, have the time - but oh well, it was spent.) My academics and time management aside, I really do like the way things turned out. Peter's Publisher may look better right now than it ever has. Thank you, Blogger, for the new design options! I am, however, totally open to making more changes, and I'm still thinking about different possibilities. (For example, should I really have the clash of a Georgetown photo being the header and a Revillagigedo photo the background? I'm considering making it all Alaska.) So... if there are any people who just happen to come here any time soon, please make some suggestions!

In the state primary election last August, I voted for the first time. Being an undeclared voter, I got to choose which party ballot to vote, and, given my state's partisan tilt, I chose to vote among the Republican candidates - who, quite ironically, were the more diverse bunch (as there were more of them running for the various offices). I also voted on two questions for the City of Ketchikan, both concerning the site of a new library being planned.

Statewide, there was really only one interesting result: our incumbent senator Lisa Murkowski lost her primary to a Tea Party and Sarah Palin-supported candidate with no political experience and a lot of radical talk. Otherwise, our current governor and representative are set up to run for reelection against a couple Democrats. Right away, it was actually the local library question that most impassioned me.

When I first heard my hometown was looking to build a new library, the idea seemed to me unnecessary. I grew up with the library…

It was just a few posts ago (in April) when I typed out the classes I was going to pre-register for to take this semester. It turns out I only got three of those five in pre-registration, but instead of International Perspectives on Global History I got my second choice, History of Ireland, so I was only one class short of a full load. Yesterday I found out that International Trade, the last class I wanted to take, is full and closed to registration or with dozens on the waitlist - for every period. Thus, today, after my first day of classes, I was forced to accept that I will not be taking economics this semester.

As much as I dislike economics for its immorality, pseudo-science, and general non-applicability to what I wish to do in life, I still have to take two more classes in the field. I did really want to take the ITrade class this semester, so then after I took IFinance the next, I'd be totally done with econ requirements. My current situation will postpone taking care of a…

It certainly didn't go with time spent writing blogposts. I suppose the simple fact is that I've been busy - busy working, busy spending time with others. My last day of work was on Wednesday, and since then I've been overwhelmed with the reality of how few days I have left in my summer. I've certainly had new experiences this summer - getting my driver's license, getting my first real job - and enjoying things all the way, but it seems to me that I am always in need of more time, to be spent in one way or another, and having several more days in the summer might have been good for that.

In many ways, college is more relaxing than being at home, and I definitely have a lot more "me" time in DC. But DC is lonely, and to be honest with myself, I have quite a lot of "me" time in Ketchikan: I simply choose to spend it with others, especially my girlfriend, and I wouldn't do it any other way. The two of us have been pretty sad lately as we approa…

I have returned to you tonight because of an email from Blogger telling me about all the great new features you have, and also because of the shame and guilt I bear for not having written on you very often this summer. You will be pleased to note, however, that life is good and beautiful. I am content and relaxed in my job; I just received great news on my financial aid for next year; I face each morning with happiness and enjoy every day to the fullest; I am ever more in love with my girlfriend, and I know in my heart she is the one.

Though you yourself will never know the joys of sentience, I am sure you take some sort of satisfaction, however possible, in being a place of record for my life. If for no other reason, (though there are other reasons), I must surely continue blogging to give meaning to your existence.

Aside from this sentence, I am going to totally ignore the fact that this blog has again been pretty abandoned of late. Instead, I am going to write in classic style: a three-part title with the subjects taken in opposite order.

Today I learned from Canadian news that the Queen Charlotte Islands are no more. They are now officially called Haida Gwaii, meaning The People's Islands in Haida. In brief, I believe this is amazing, admirable and absolutely appropriate.

Also today, France was basically knocked out of the World Cup in a 2-0 loss to Mexico. It was Cinco de Mayo deja vu. Now, despite how much of a francophile I may be or may be thought to be, I feel no loss from this result. Firstly, the French team is a mess; I've been disappointed in them since Euro 2008. Secondly, I like Mexico; I really enjoyed studying its history last year for AcDc and I hope to go there sometime soon. Lastly, just like on Cinco de Mayo, it's good to have a win for the underdog - the country i…

As I recently stated in a Facebook status update, I now have 275 minutes of class, 3 papers and 3 finals left. Yes, I do use Facebook; I'm sure a vast majority of American college students do. Anyone want to wager a guess at the rate? 90%? 95? It is an amazing tool of communication - allowing me and everyone else on Fb to easily keep in contact with people we know, whenever we want, in ways that would be impossible otherwise.

Facebook also, however, is an easy way to waste time. Despite the countless gifts it gives us, the internet in general is too. In discussing the use of computers in college lectures, the point has been made that daydreaming in class was not invented at the advent of the laptop. This is true, of course, and I have proved that from time to time while I've been in college as well as high school. Nevertheless, I have never used a computer during class; it just makes not paying attention so much easier.

I realize I have continued to be a delinquent blogger. I know I've said this before too, but college just has to be a higher priority, and there's a lot of time that goes into college. That said, I am now looking down the homestretch of my freshman year. It's just a little unbelievable! The passage of time is such a crazy phenomenon. In terms of major grades, I now only have seven assignments and events remaining: two PST papers, an HA paper, a French oral exam, and finals for French, Econ and HAC. I've also pre-registered for my classes next semester. I'll know for sure whether I got everything I wanted in a week or two, but until then, here is what I signed up for:

International Perspectives on Global HistoryEast European History ISocial History of the French PeopleComparative Political SystemsInternational TradeLet me know what you think!

Today is the first day of my first Easter Break at Georgetown University (and probably my first "Easter Break" ever, since KGBSD never gave us days off around this time). Today, I rated my 2000th song on my iTunes. I currently have 3330 songs, 1210 of which I've never even listened to (or at least haven't played on iTunes). For a while, I've made it a goal to decrease this number (which I have, by hundreds and hundreds) and also rate all these neglected songs (on iTunes' five star scale) so that I know which are good ones to go back and listen to more. Now, 2000 of my songs have ratings, and the 2000th to be rated was "Coleraine's Jig/Jackson's Jig" from Taheny & Reid's Celtic Christmas album.

This is not an important event in my life, and it's rather sad that I should write a post on this when so many much more important things have been neglected on my blog, but please understand my position: I have woefully under-posted here i…

It has been nearly a year since my "east coast college trip" which my dad took me on last April before I had to decide where I was going to school. We flew to DC and then drove up to Princeton and Yale, stopping in Philadelphia on the way back to DC, where I took part in weekend programs for both American and Georgetown. The ironic result of the trip was that Georgetown was the place where I actually had the least fun. I don't even have any pictures of me being there! - and I have many from the other schools. The trip was enjoyable and educational, and I think it was very good that I got to see and compare both American and Georgetown. Ultimately, Princeton and Yale didn't accept me off their wait lists and my choice was really between AU, GU, and Macalester. My decision was essentially to go for the best - and I don't regret it one bit.

I do regret, however, not having blogged much much more about the second half of the trip. I did write a pretty good amount sev…

Yesterday I was inspired by how campus has broken out in the beauty of spring - so I decided to take pictures! I absolutely love the tulips that are in several places around campus, and the cherry trees are now on blossom. I've had a few bumps in the road recently - getting sick, papers, etc. - but walking among all these beautiful plants made my day. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Apparently it will be in the 70's here by the end of this week. Some people say it's spring, but to me it already feels like summer.

In Ketchikan, spring's succession of winter is basically the progression from 30's and low 40's overcast and rainy weather to high 40's and 50's rainy and overcast weather. And I appreciate that. In fact, spring is perhaps my favorite time in Ketchikan, as winter is often just a bit too cold, fall a bit too wet and summer a bit too dry. I say "a bit" because weather and temperature really don't vary that much, month to month; the essential seasonal elements of my hometown are measured in the amount of sunlight and the amount of tourists.

After living in DC it's a little hard for me to understand why people get wrapped up in the extremes of Alaskan sunlight. Sunlight's seasonal changes and their effects are basically the same in the lower 48+DC - it's that ours are more exciting. My attitude towards wi…

February 2010 is a month that will live in infamy. It is the first month (and hopefully will be the only) to have passed without a new post being added to this blog. It's not that I've been too busy to blog; it's just that life is about priorities, and writing blog posts has definitely slipped in my list of priorities recently (and throughout this blog's history). There was a time when my months had nearly as many blog posts as days! (Actually that was only May 2008 - this blog's first month - but still.)

My second semester of school is passing on as would be largely be expected. I think it's been a lot better than last semester, with more enjoyable classes (like History of Africa) and the absence of mind-numbing ones (like International Relations). (The other big class-content switch that's been made is from my proseminar to Political and Social Thought, but that change is a bit more neutral.) I've made progress in having better college habits too, mo…

Today was quite the first: It was the first time I have ever been given Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday.

Yes, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District continues to ignore the fact that MLK Day is not only a federal holiday, but a time to celebrate one of the greatest figures in American history. I might find the district's negligence a little less irksome if they took even the smallest of efforts to promote district-wide instruction and events surrounding Dr. King's life during the school day, but as far as I know it has done absolutely nothing in that direction. Individual teachers may take the initiative to teach about the meaning of the holiday their children aren't receiving, but I think it's safe to say most students are left in the dark.

There might be an argument to keep students in school on MLK Day so that they would all better appreciate its significance, but that position couldn't even begin to have merit until all teachers are encouraged t…

And so it begins again. My second semester at Georgetown is filled with both continuity and change: Coming back here felt so normal it was almost disturbing. My first class was French, which really seems like it's going to be exactly the same as last semester, save for changed faces and better preparedness on my part. Macroeconomics may turn out being significantly different from micro when it comes to the class content and its teacher, but my attitude towards the course will likely be the same. Because of events the details of which are not know to me, History of Asian Cultures is now being taught by a different professor, so I really have no idea how things will turn out compared to last semester. The fourth class I had today was Political and Social Thought, and this too is rather an unknown to me at this point as far as knowing how well I'll like the class goes. My last class is History of Africa, which is the only class I have tomorrow.